Any Pistols story retread is bound by familiarity, but as the years roll on and the music industry subsumes rebellion into bitesize micro-career fashion bands, it’s always worth reiterating punk’s explosion. This does a pretty good job of relating the energy, ideals and, yes, chaos, of the Pistols’ early years, roughly from the point of psych-tinged rocker, producer and engineer Dave Goodman.
The tale unfolds from a series of talking heads, from the alwaysgood- value Malcolm McLaren (revealing, or inventing, the driving force: “to overtake Cliff Richard”) to Tony Wilson, Glen Matlock, the ever-insightful Don Letts (whose observation on current cultural and sociological matters is both tragic and sharp) and the late Goodman himself. Partly by virtue of his involvement in bootlegging the Pistols, and partly because of pissing off the band by making them do take after take of the Anarchy… single, he was replaced by Chris Thomas.
There’s no Pistols music, and it’s all rather Malcolm-centric (Rotten comes out of all this particularly negatively) – you can read into that what you wish. Goodman’s incidental pastiches intersperse the interviews and keep it moving along neatly. Well made, with interviewees close to the action, it’s a decent early addition to this year’s inevitable plethora of punk-tinged releases.
